Old-age Security

The Wilson Center and Old-age Security

With UN demographers more certain than ever that global population will reach between 10 and 12 billion by the end of the century, the challenge of building a sustainable future seems daunting. But according to Wolfgang Lutz, founding director of the Vienna-based Wittgenstein Center for Demography and Global Human Capital, these projections miss one crucial variable: increasing levels of education. more

Supplemental Security Income, passed in 1972 during an innovative and expansive phase of the American welfare state, marked an effort to do welfare right. But economic and political circumstances, as well as the contingencies of the moment, all combined to turn the program into a source of controversy over such things as whether parents coached their children to act “crazy” in an effort to secure benefits or whether immigrants deserved benefits. more

Christopher Wilson spoke to The Dallas Morning News about Mexico's potential to become a more medical tourism destination for Americans. He said, “Mexico needs to get more hospitals certified by the Joint Commission, address violence and the perception of it, and needs to significantly increase advertising in the United States.” more

Christopher Wilson spoke to The Dallas Morning News about Mexico's potential to become a more medical tourism destination for Americans. He said, “Mexico needs to get more hospitals certified by the Joint Commission, address violence and the perception of it, and needs to significantly increase advertising in the United States.”

With UN demographers more certain than ever that global population will reach between 10 and 12 billion by the end of the century, the challenge of building a sustainable future seems daunting. But according to Wolfgang Lutz, founding director of the Vienna-based Wittgenstein Center for Demography and Global Human Capital, these projections miss one crucial variable: increasing levels of education.

Supplemental Security Income, passed in 1972 during an innovative and expansive phase of the American welfare state, marked an effort to do welfare right. But economic and political circumstances, as well as the contingencies of the moment, all combined to turn the program into a source of controversy over such things as whether parents coached their children to act “crazy” in an effort to secure benefits or whether immigrants deserved benefits.

“We are in the midst of a silent revolution,” said Ann Pawliczko, a senior technical advisor in the population and development branch at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), quoting former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. “It is a revolution that extends well beyond demographics, with major economic, social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual implications.”

Essays by leading academic experts and policy practitioners address important questions regarding foreign models in Latin American policy reform in crucial areas of social policy such as pensions, unemployment insurance, and health care.

These essays on welfare reform by the most prominent scholars in the field canvas the issues both theoretically and empirically. The contributors present the pro and con arguments and assess the effects on related programs, as well as the prospects for poor mothers and their families.